UCA Farnham Fine Art student, Eliel Jones, who successfully graduated with 1st Class Honours in June has accepted an offer of an internship at the prestigious Dallas Museum of Art.
Eliel speaks about how he has built upon his experiences at UCA, what he will be doing as well as offering advice to those who may wish to pursue a similar opportunity.
What will you be doing in Dallas and what was the process of application?
Every year the Dallas Museum of Art offers several 9-month, full-time and paid internship positions within their curatorial and educational departments. I am very lucky to have been offered the McDermott Internship for Visitor Engagement working within the Department of Education and the Centre for Creative Connections (C3 Gallery), an internationally renown experimental learning environment of 12000sq ft. based at the heart of the museum and that contains galleries, a theatre, an art studio, a tech lab, a children’s gallery and a space for pre-school age children.
My main role will be initially to assist with the programming destined to engage visitors both on-site and off-site, helping develop, implement and evaluate interactive and participatory projects, displays and commissions that link the collection and temporary exhibitions program within DMA with the C3 Gallery. The goal is that I will eventually be organising and leading participatory activities in the galleries and studio and have the opportunity to design and implement my own project.
Alongside this I will be assisting with the carrying out of bilingual community partnership projects in the area, helping oversee and coordinate volunteers at the museum and off-site as well as assisting with the development of the Advance Placement Student exhibition and programs, amongst other things.
The positions were open to recent undergraduate or graduate students from degrees in art education, studio art or a related field. Specifically for the position I was interested in it was suggested that the candidate should be bilingual in Spanish. The deadline for submission of application was around March this year. The application consisted of an online form followed by a submission via post of a cover letter, a two-page statement of interest, a CV and two academic and/or professional references. After making it through the first stage of the process I was interview by 7 DMA staff from the Centre for Creative Connections and Community Engagement departments and after an agonising wait I was offered the position that I had outlined as my first choice.
What previous experience do you think contributed to you gaining this job?
I think it was a mixture of several things. The fact that I already had about one year’s experience working at several art institutions in London helped me to show my commitment on pursuing a career within the field as well as showcasing a series of skills and knowledge that were relevant for the position. I think my experience interning at Frith Street Gallery might have been particularly poignant as during my time there I was really able to dedicate myself to some specific projects as well as assisting with the private views for Tacita Dean, Anna Barriball and Jaki Irvine and at Frieze Art Fair in London.
It was also very important for this position to have some previous experience working with diverse participants and audiences in different environments, specially children and young adults. In regards to this, my work as an Art’s Tutor at a Bilingual Summer Camp in Malaga, Spain as well as some work at a school in Surrey both contributed to this requirement.
Undoubtedly my practice as an artist also came into the question, as they were very interested, specially during interview, to talk about the projects that I had worked on and developed while at university. I think the subject matter of my work and the development of my practice and dissertation were two important points that contributed to me gaining this position.
Adding to all this, I believe that the numerous projects that I collaborated or took part in, the exhibitions, the volunteering work and other relevant part-time positions, all contributed to the overall success of my application.
What advice you would you have for other UCA Farnham students?
I think if anything I would advise any student to work and gain as much experience as they can while they are studying. I know sometimes there is a lot of work to do with the course, but specially in first and second year there is definitely time to dedicate to internships, placements, volunteer work or other collaborative projects. Time flies, so don’t sleep in the laurels and get out there and do stuff!
Take advantage of the fact that you are, after all, a student; you can justify doing work for free, even though I would love for you to at least get minimum wage! But while doing these positions you will be able to ask questions; you will meet people and they will meet you - hopefully they will give you good references and maybe even paid jobs. If anything I can assure you that if you have the right kind of frame of mind you will definitely learn; you will become curious, driven, motivated and passionate about whatever it is you want to do. Or maybe not… maybe you realise how much you hate it and how you love something else instead. Anyhow, it will be valuable!
In short, do as much as you can whenever you can. Fill up that CV, contact book and mailing list. This will allow you to be able to pursue better opportunities post-graduation, whether your going into further study, developing your practice as an artist or working in a arts-related field.
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